E-Commerce: Bringing Home the Holiday Bargains
December 2nd, 2009
Portia Krebs
Where can consumers find the best deals, and skip the swarms of holiday shoppers who descend on brick-and-mortar retailers from Black Friday forward? Thanks to broadband, e-tailers are offering deep discounts, free shipping, and more to lure consumers to their sites. And, so far, their strategy is working.
According to comScore, Black Friday e-commerce jumped 11% this year. This increase stands in bold contrast with offline spending on the same day, which ShopTrack reports only saw an increase of 0.5%. The overall picture of e-commerce holiday sales is looking positive too – with $10.57 billion spent online from November 1 – 27, with an additional $318 million on Thanksgiving and $595 million on Black Friday. And, according to Coremetrics Inc., web shoppers spent a total of 11% more than they did a year ago on Cyber Monday.
What’s fueling the spike in online holiday shopping? In addition to avoiding mall crowds, consumers on a tight budget in this economy are hunting for the best holiday bargains, and e-tailers are appealing to this demand. Free shipping, attractive discounts, unique online products, and savvy promotions enlisting social media are reeling consumers in.
Today’s customer is also armed with broadband-powered tools to find the best deals around. The smartphone app, ShopSavvy, allows consumers to scan the barcode of a product in a store to identify where to find the best price. How popular is this app? On Black Friday alone, consumers consulted ShopSavvy 612,500 times, compared with 86,000 times on a regular Friday. EBay, Inc.’s “deals” app for iPhone was also put to use more than 50,000 times on Black Friday.
With nearly 2 out of every 3 Americans connecting to broadband at home, e-commerce is a convenient choice anywhere, anytime – offering flexibility and affordability we can all appreciate this hectic holiday season.
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